Same anon who brought the Rainey x Tony headcanon
Imagine if a man being abused by a woman was normal in Tony’s family so when he gets with Tina he didn’t question
Because he clearly respects his mom and nonsa, but like he says about his male relatives is the they’re all named Tony and one of them is on disability
oh for sure. i think it's kind of fate that every Tony ends up with a Tina type. the women in his family are clearly respected and dominant.
the other thing about Tony and Tina is the whole "Tony likes them with a few screws loose" line from Rainey, + the "Hard to get, I like that!" line from Tony's love ending when you don't kiss him.
Tony has a thing for people who need fixing. Rainey has screws loose. Tina has a little gap. It's implied that he's fucking Rebel, and we all know how they are.
"I'm single because it takes a lot to handle all of this."
That's a personal favorite quote of mine. A lot of people say 'poor Tony! We need to get him away from that witch Tina!' without acknowledging that he is there because he wants to be. They break up, then get back together, then break up again. Tina will always have a problem with something, which means Tony will always have a problem to fix.
You can also turn a hate ending with Tony into a love ending through Tina by pitching him the threesome. His words?
"You got me a triangle? What's the catch?"
From the second he mentions Tina, he already has a sense of ownership over her. It's the same when she talks about him. They're two people who want to control each other, and also two people who want to be controlled.
Tina has a little gap. She's also a ding-a-ling, and she wants to be told it. She is to be held at a distance and stricken. She's sharp and wants to strike back.
Tony is open and shut. He's got the tools to get the job done. He screws and bangs. He is to be used, and to be put in his place, and when she's done, he is to be left behind without so much as a goodbye.
They're not perfect for each other. Not in the slightest. Tina/Doug would be much more fulfilling to Tina. Tony/Bev would be more fulfilling to Tony. The only thing that Tina and Tony have in common is that Tina likes using people, and Tony likes being used.
Tina is the only one who brings out the authentic Tony, the authentic Tony being the Tony who has no clue who he is and simply follows orders because... well, that's what he's designed to do.
And yet, I still feel he's happier that way. In his solo ending, he's still defensive. He still refuses to admit he's wrong, and that he doesn't have all of the answers, even if he gets to come home and be more genuine with the player who 'sets him straight.' The line "but he appreciates that you just let him be himself," in his love ending bothers me, because he isn't being himself. We don't push him to do the introspection it takes to be himself in that ending.
The Tony we fall in love with is still fake. It's still an act. We're still being scammed. We're still getting played. He still goes on stage and pretends he knows what he's doing with his act. He gets to explore who he really is with the player after the fact, but he still has to do it.
The Tony that Tina falls in love with is real. She breaks him down into submitting, into going along with whatever she says. She breaks him down into being real all of the time, and the real Tony... kind of just sucks. He's not a good guy, and with Tina, he can say it. She doesn't want him to be a good guy. She wants him to be a jerk, and he is a jerk, and he hates her, and that's exactly what she wants.
The difference here is that, Tony has to constantly keep up an act in the first ending, something that, through his friend ending, we know is quite literally all he's hinging on. In the second, his presence on TV is about him being real. After he drops the whole 'workshops' thing, all he has is Tina, so he goes with it. The construction bit is gone. The Fix-It, Ton! demand is gone.
And in their ending, the player questions if Tony is happy or not. It's often taken as a bad ending for Tony, but I don't think it should be. Yes, he's stuck with her. Yes, they 'insist you are the only good thing in their lives.' They both hate life. They both hate everything, and they both use the player as an escape from the mess they got themselves into.
And they're both in the type of titillating, engaging game of cat and mouse that they have a thing for. Tony is a tool. He likes to be used. Tina doesn't just like to use, but she likes to abuse, and having a tool in her hands gives her power. And Tony, by all means, is a tool. He only knows as much as his user does, and if he didn't like the ways that Tina was using him, he wouldn't go back, plain and simple.
All that being said, I love that headcanon. I imagine he watched his parents be like that, and to him, that's how love is supposed to be. The threesome makes it better. Things are hard with Tina, and easy with Player, and he gets the full balance of what he wants. I honestly can't imagine that Tony in the solo love ending is sexually satisfied. He probably feels like a fraud, getting up on stage and pretending for the rest of his life, but there's no more being a fraud with being Tina. There's no more construction bit, and he can actually explore who he is as a person.
I might think about him too much. Whoops
